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Blog: July 2015

During Community Centre Week, Frances Harkin and Mary-Kathryn Rallings highlight the role of community centres as local assets and the work that housing providers are doing to enable local community organisations to manage the community assets in their property portfolio, a process known as Community Asset Transfer. Working in partnership with Affinity Sutton, HACT have developed resources to support housing providers in developing their approach to Community Asset Transfer.

Over the first half of 2015, HACT has been pooling data from across nine housing associations to explore the relationship between community investment and bottom line performance. HACT’s Data Scientist Phil Goddard reports on the progress made with this innovative project so far.

Housing associations have precious resources and great potential to deploy them in ways that can bring huge benefits to the communities they serve and the people they house. The financial constraints on the sector, including those ushered in by the July 2015 Budget, only serve to sharpen the imperative to maximise the impacts of the resources we do have. A relentless focus on definitively establishing what works most cost effectively, and then doing more of it, will be vital in meeting the needs of both the people we serve and our organisations as businesses.